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Winnipeg's Housing Crisis and The Class, Capitalism, and Construction: Winnipeg’s Housing Crisis and the Debate over Public Housing, 1934–1939 STEFAN EPP* The collapse of the construction industry during the 1930s resulted in a housing crisis of unprecedented proportions in cities throughout Canada. Winnipeg faced a particularly difficult situation. Beginning in 1934, the city undertook several endeavours to remedy the problem, all of which failed. While the shortcomings of federal housing programmes and reluctant federal and provincial governments were partly to blame for the failure of these local efforts, municipal debates on the subject of housing reveal that reform was also stalled by opposition from the local business elite, whose members disliked competition in the rental market. L’effondrement de l’industrie de la construction dans les anne´es 1930 a provoque´ une crise sans pre´ce´dent du logement dans les villes du Canada. La situation e´tait particulie`rement difficile a` Winnipeg. En 1934, la ville a commence´ a` prendre des mesures pour corriger le proble`me : toutes ont e´choue´. Si les faiblesses des pro- grammes fe´de´raux de logement et la re´ticence des gouvernements fe´de´ral et provin- cial ont contribue´ partiellement a` l’e´chec de ces efforts locaux, les de´bats municipaux sur la question du logement re´ve`lent que la re´forme s’est e´galement heurte´ea` l’opposition de l’e´lite locale du milieu des affaires, dont les membres n’aimaient pas la concurrence sur le marche´ locatif. DURING THE 1930s, Canadian cities struggled to cope with a significant housing shortage. Between 1931 and 1933, the Dominion Bureau of Statistics reported that, while population growth necessitated the construc- tion of 27,500 dwelling units, only 2,609 had been built.1 By the end of the decade, nearly one-third of municipalities recorded a vacancy rate of zero, while two-thirds of municipalities had vacancy rates below * Stefan Epp is currently a research associate at the University of Manitoba and holds an MA in history from Queen’s University. 1 Legislative Library of Manitoba, House of Commons Special Committee on Housing, “Minutes of and Proceedings and Evidence No. 11, Third and Final Report,” April 11, 1935 – April 15, 1935, p. 374. 394 Histoire sociale / Social History 1 per cent.2 Consequently,people across the country were forced to live in over- crowded and unsanitary dwellings. The city of Winnipeg was a case in point. In analysing housing policy during the 1930s, this study focuses on the policies of two levels of government: federal and municipal. While the federal government did adopt several house construction programmes in the mid-to-late 1930s, these were unsuccessful in addressing housing shortages in Winnipeg and, indeed, in many parts of the country, particu- larly in the West. Federal programmes generally failed to meet Winnipeg’s housing needs. Furthermore, although there was frequent advocacy for public housing at the municipal level in Winnipeg, it did not result in any construction due to opposition from the local business community and other levels of government. The provincial government, for example, had little to say on housing in the city, perhaps because of the legislature’s largely rural composition, except occasionally to veto munici- pal decisions. Despite the dogged attempts of some local politicians to introduce housing reforms, inadequate federal programmes and local opposition from property owners combined to inhibit any social housing developments in Winnipeg during the 1930s. Jill Wade, Richard Harris, and David Hulchanski have begun to engage seriously the early history of Canadian housing.3 However, relatively little scholarship addresses housing policy prior to the Second World War. Yet the post-war building boom and the government policies that supported it did not develop in a historical vacuum. Winnipeg’s engagement with federal housing programmes illustrates the roots of Canadian housing policy and of the welfare state. This “pre-history” of the Canadian welfare state serves as a reminder that the development of social pro- grammes was intensely resisted by numerous political and economic elites and interest groups. Municipal Politics in Winnipeg The legacy of the General Strike of 1919 has given Winnipeg a prominent place in the memory of Canadian labour history, and it gave Winnipeg’s municipal politics a unique character for decades after the strike. As Ed Rea and Brian McKillop have demonstrated, the class divisions that seg- mented Winnipeg during the strike continued to dominate municipal 2 John C. Bacher, Keeping to the Marketplace: The Evolution of Canadian Housing Policy (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1993), p. 122. 3 Jill Wade, Houses for All: The Struggle for Social Housing in Vancouver, 1919–1950 (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1994); David Hulchanski, “The 1935 Dominion Housing Act: Setting the Stage for a Permanent Federal Presence in Canada’s Housing Sector,” Urban History Review, vol. 15 (June 1986), pp. 19–39; Richard Harris, “Working-class Home Ownership and Housing Affordability Across Canada in 1931,” Histoire sociale – Social History, vol. 19, no. 37 (May 1986), pp. 121–138, and Creeping Conformity: How Canada Became Suburban, 1900–1960 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004). Class, Capitalism, and Construction 395 politics throughout the 1920s and 1930s.4 The city remained sharply divided by the overlapping categories of ethnicity, language, geography, occupation, and class. Winnipeggers themselves recognized the class dichotomy within their city, describing municipal politics as a “battle- ground” between established institutions and the political Left.5 Appreciating this division is essential for understanding the debates over efforts towards housing reform in the city, as all political activity was con- tested within the broader struggle between “Citizens” and “Socialists.” The Civic Election Committee (CEC) represented the pro-business interests in Winnipeg.6 Often known as the “Citizens” since the committee was the political descendent of the Citizens’ Committee of One Thousand during the General Strike, the CEC consisted of Liberals and Conservatives who cooperated for the purposes of municipal elections, largely to ensure that labour candidates were defeated and that business interests were protected.7 The most important thing a municipal govern- ment could do, according to the Citizens, was to run a business-like, efficient administration that kept both taxes and costs low. An advertisement in 1933 proclaimed that CEC candidates stood for “sound government,” “economical methods,” “meeting obligations,” and “impartial judgement.”8 Consequently, many Citizen aldermen denounced the expenditure of money on housing programmes because these were deemed to be both socialist and an unnecessary burden on taxpayers. The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was the largest labour party in the city. The ILP manifesto often included statements such as “the social own- ership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange is essential to the permanent solution of problems arising out of social and economic ills.”9 Yet, rather than revolution, ILP candidates suggested that society should be reformed along the basis of “humanity first, not property.”10 ILP election platforms emphasized efforts to ameliorate the worst con- ditions in the city: improving unemployment relief and working conditions, developing a city housing programme to relieve slum districts, instituting public ownership of transportation and other services, and shifting the 4 Ed Rea, Parties and Power: An Analysis of Winnipeg City Council, 1919–1975 (Winnipeg: Department of Urban Affairs, Province of Manitoba, 1976), p. 1; Brian McKillop, “The Socialist as Citizen: John Queen and the Mayoralty of Winnipeg, 1935,” MHS Transactions Series, vol. 3, no. 30 (1973–1974), available online http//:www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/transactions/3/queen1935.shtml. 5 General R. Y. Patterson quoted in “Webb Supporters Name Workers in Mayoralty Fight,” Winnipeg Free Press, November 10, 1933. 6 Throughout the article, the terms Citizens and CEC are used interchangeably and have the same meaning. 7 University of Manitoba Archives [hereafter UMA], Ed Rea Collection, MSS 73, box 1, file 1, Stanley Knowles, interview with Brian McKillop, June 14, 1969. 8 Advertisement in Winnipeg Free Press, November 24, 1933. 9 Winnipeg Free Press, November 8, 1934. 10 Winnipeg Tribune, November 27, 1931. 396 Histoire sociale / Social History tax burden from workers to businesses.11 In opposition to the Citizens’ belief that the city was best run as a business, the ILP argued that munici- pal government existed to serve the needs of the people, not of capital. In the years following the General Strike, Citizen aldermen generally outnumbered labour aldermen. This remained true until 1934, when there were equal numbers of labour and Citizen representatives on council.12 The mayor in 1934 was Ralph Webb, a Citizen, who could cast the deciding vote in favour of the Citizens in the case of a tie. This changed in 1935 when John Queen of the ILP was elected mayor of Winnipeg, giving labour politicians the balance of power. In 1937, Citizens regained control of both council and the mayoralty, although labour politicians continued to hold a significant portion of the seats on council. Citizens continued to control the majority of council seats for the rest of the decade, but Queen returned to the mayoralty in 1938, a post he held until 1942.
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